“The Heart of a Wildflower”
2012 All Rights Reserved
Chapter 17
Lizzie lay comfortably in the circle of Zeb’s arms thinking about how good it felt to be so thoroughly and inexplicably loved by a man such as Zeb. He was the type of man that could come off rough and hard to a person who only had a glimpse of his exterior. But in the bedroom, when it was just the two of them he had been so sweet and tender, paying tribute to every inch of her well sated body.
She sighed and noticed that the sun was beginning to set as the room began to dim. Time meant nothing to her right now. It could have been minutes that they laid there or it could have been hours, Lizzie didn’t have a care. All she cared about was being with this man that made her feel so… womanly.
His hand lightly stroked the underside of her breast and she felt her body’s instant response to his touch. It was automatic; like this was how it was always supposed to be. What in the world ever made her think that she could resist this man?
Resisting Zeb was tantamount to a small child resisting a chocolate candy bar.
It just wasn’t done.
Lizzie thought back to the declaration that he made just before he claimed not only her body but her heart and soul. He had said that she belonged to him. At first she wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She’d never belonged to anyone before; she was an independent woman in every facet of her life.
But the idea of belonging to Zeb had an appeal all of its own. He had been her only high school crush. He was the only man that she ever truly loved. He was also the man who fathered her son.
She could never in good faith belong to another. Zeb was it for her.
Lizzie tilted her head and noticed Zeb watching her. She smiled and touched his cheek. Knowing how much this man had come to mean to not only her, but her heart as well made her nervous. She still didn’t think that she was ready to share this information with him. Not until she was sure of his objectives.
He left her once; who’s to say that he wouldn’t leave her again the moment that he began to get bored with her.
No, she fought the cold chill that raced up her spine. She couldn’t tell him yet. The risk was too great. She was willing to reap the benefits as his lover in bed, but she wouldn’t allow him to know the secrets in her heart.
Not yet anyways.
“Lizzie,” he whispered softly.
Her eyes were still locked with his. “Mm,” she answered.
“You don’t have to be scared. We’ll find the person that vandalized your car.” He stroked the length of her hair. “I promise, baby. I would never let anything happen to you.”
She frowned and then rolled her eyes. She had almost forgotten about her stupid car. She had been so focused on the way that Zeb loved that she couldn’t think of anything else. Now, her mind was focused back on the damage to her car and who could possibly hate her so much.
“What? What is it? What’s wrong?” He asked her Elizabeth when he spotted her down turned lips.
Unable to speak, she playfully smacked his arm.
“What?” He asked again, his expression reflecting a mask of false innocence.
“You,” she pointed at his nose. Elizabeth pulled herself up on her elbows and then laid her head on his chest. She splayed her fingers across his chest and played with the soft mat of curly brown hair there.
“And what’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, running his hand smoothly up and down the expanse of her bare back.
“I just don’t get how you can waltz back into my life after six years and declare that I belong to you. Or how you can come in my home and tell me that I don’t have anything to worry about because you’re here now and you’re going to protect me from all the bad things that happen in my life. It’s a bit much don’t you think?”
She felt his hand momentarily still in the center of her back. The heat from his body seemed to sink in at that exact spot, making her feel much warmer than she had been a few minutes ago.
“What? You don’t believe me?”
She looked away from him, hating the way his acute gaze unnerved her. “It’s just… hard to believe. It’s been six years, Zeb. No letters, no phone calls– no nothing. Then one day you just pop back into my life, tell me I’m yours and I’m just supposed to go along with it?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“I said that because it’s the truth. And as long as we’re talking about truth, here’s something else for you to think about. I didn’t call or write to you because I was too scared. I was too afraid that if I stayed in contact with you then I wouldn’t complete my tours. And then there was also the fact that if something had happened to me, I didn’t want you to have to go through the grieving process because I didn’t make it back.”
He paused and pulled her a little tighter against him. “After that night; that one magical night that we shared before
I left to go overseas I knew then that you were the one for me. I didn’t have a single doubt in my mind. When I saw you in my bed, sleeping like an angel I promised myself that you would be the woman I was going to take as my wife. It was you that I wanted to live out my forever with. You, Elizabeth and nobody else.”
Damn! Elizabeth was stunned speechless. He was talking about things like marriage and forever. She was still just trying to make it through the next day. She felt her chest squeeze and her throat swell, unable to come up with an intelligible response.
One minute she was floating on cloud nine and now– well now she felt like the room was closing in on her.
Zeb easily picked up on her abrupt change of mood. In seconds, he sat up, effectively pulling her up with him. He cradled her nude body in his lap and gently grabbed her jaw, lifting it so that all she could see was his face.
“Don’t over analyze it, baby. We have time. I’ve waited six years, I can wait as long as it takes for me to prove to you that I would be the perfect husband, partner… friend. I want to be your everything and I’m willing to invest all the time it takes until you believe me.
He leaned in and brushed a tender kiss across her lips. “Two weeks… three years, whatever it takes,” he said softly. “I’m in this for the long haul.”
He leaned in for another kiss and from the predatory look in his eyes; she could tell that he wanted more than a gentle peck. At first she kept her mouth sealed in a tight flat line, refusing to cooperate with him. She wasn’t sure that she was done talking to him yet, but she really wasn’t sure what else to say. Her mind was telling her to resist him and say something to make him stop, but damn it, not one word would escape her frozen lips.
“Lizzie,” he called out her name warningly. “kiss me.”
Two words. That’s all it took for her to completely forget about any discussion about marriage, love and forever.
She opened up to him like a moon flower, accepting his drugging kiss.
This time when he kissed her, he put all tenderness aside and pummeled her mouth with his tongue; paring it in and out of her mouth, dominating her, tasting her, inhaling her, branding her as his as he continued to seductively massage her mouth.
He knew that he had her when she wrapped her arms around his neck and softly moaned into the kiss.
“That’s my girl,” he mumbled, slowly lifting his head to look into her dazed eyes. Her lips were a deep red color and swollen, begging him for more. He felt her hard nipples pebble against his chest and lifted his hand to lightly brush over them. “See,” he told her, flattening his palm in the center of her chest. “Your body accepts me without hesitation. Now it’s time for me to find a way to capture your heart.”
She snorted out loud and he grinned. The earlier tension that stretched between them dissipated.
Now that she was smiling, Zeb decided to switch tactics. “Hey,” Zeb asked tracing a line down the center of her abdomen, “what do you think about going into town for dinner?”
One cue, her stomach growled.
She pressed her hand against her stomach to still the sound. Embarrassed from the sound, she looked up at him.
“Food sound’s good actually.” She moved to get off his lap and stood in front of him with her hands on her hips.
“You’ve been keeping me so active lately, I keep forgetting to eat.”
He peered up at her under half-lidded eyes. The smoldering look he gave her said he was hungry too but not for food.
“Oh no you don’t,” she said knowing that look. Elizabeth started to slowly back up towards her closet knowing that if she didn’t take the initiative and get dressed, neither one of them would be leaving this room any time soon. And as much as she may like the idea of living off of Zeb’s loving, it just wasn’t humanly possible.
“Down boy,” she giggled and hurriedly disappeared into the closet when she saw him getting off the bed. “Get dressed,” she told him and slammed the closet door. “We have to eat.”
Through the closed door she heard his husky remark. “I know something that I want to eat and you can be damn sure that it isn’t downtown at the Diner.”
As tempting as the offer was, her stomach rumbled again demanding to be fed. “I need food,” she shot back, “real food like meat and potatoes kind of food.”
She heard his haughty laughter fill the bedroom and a warming sensation curdled deep in her chest. She couldn’t help but wonder if this is what the forever that he kept referring to would be like, a life full of teasing and laughter.
She grabbed a pair of jeans off of the shelf and shuffled them on her legs.
Zeb Crooker didn’t know it yet but he already owned her. He owned her heart, body and soul.
But that wasn’t the scary part. The scary part was wondering what his reaction would be when he did learn just how strong of a hold he had on her. Would he stay and keep his promises? Or would he repeat his actions of the past and walk away, killing her in the process.
Only time would tell.